Archives

All posts for the month May, 2011

The last time we had a flu shot was way back 2009 or thereabouts. And I must say, I didn’t get the flu for that whole year! It actually worked! It didn’t have the AH1N1 then, but at least it protected us from a lot of flu strains active at the time. I don’t know why we never followed it up last year, and true enough, I caught a couple of bugs in 2010. So this year, GSK went to RX to administer flu shots once again, and we were first in line. I really, REALLY dread injections. It’s a primal fear that I’ve had since I was a kid. For me, my biggest nightmare was the shots we were given annually in my grade school, LSGH. I’d have cold sweats, nightmares, panic attacks leading up to the injections. I don’t why, even if I knew it wasn’t THAT painful, it was an irrational fear. Even now that I get a blood test every quarter, for the past several years, I still get nervous. My whole body felt like jello after:

Anyway, the shot itself wasn’t really painful. But as the day progressed, my whole left arm felt a little sore, a sort of ngawit, as if I was punched in the arm. And for a couple of hours, I felt a bit ill, as if I were coming down with something. But thankfully, I felt much better as the day wore on. But the soreness is still here. Even as I type now, I feel the heaviness in my left arm. I heard what we got already includes the AH1N1 strain, together with others. Of course we can still catch a bug, since the shots don’t cover ALL the possible flu strains, but at least we’re safe from the more common ones.

Delle’s OB gave her the go-signal, since it’s actually advised, because getting the flu is difficult for women who are preggers since they can’t take anti-biotics. Again, thanks to GSK!

Can we really answer this question with diving headfirst into some tacky existential argument? I doubt it. So most people just answered the question in terms of one aspect of who they think they are. It’s a good exercise to actually try to answer this, as if you were writing an FB profile for yourself. I bet we’d all be surprised to see the disparity between who we really are and who think we are. It’s also interesting who we choose as the person asking the question. Says a lot about where you are at this point in your life.

November 23, 2009 → The Top Ten Answers To The Question: “Who Are You?”

I guess it’s safe to write about the fact that Scotty McCreery has won Season 10 of American Idol. Finally, a bet of mine made it all the way to the top. The last time I guessed the winner correctly was Carrie Underwood in Season 4. Since then, all my bets were either runner-up or never even made it to the finale. Scotty was my pick from the start mainly because I think he will sell the most records. Plus, he’s seems like a genuinely nice guy. I’m not a big fan of the genre, especially Scotty’s old-school country twang, but I think he’s the biggest star of the lot. Many others have bigger, stronger, better voices, but Scotty has that star wattage that the others just don’t.

The finale was quite impressive, with star power that would rival a Grammy line-up: Bono, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, to name a few. There was a time that performers on the show were b-sides relics like Lulu and Peter Noone. Now, the music stars know that showing up on Idol can give their singles a much needed sales spike. Beyonce and Lady Gaga proved they are a cut above the rest, on a different level altogether. There were some odd moments, when TLC did their “Waterfalls” choreo, which seems clunky and incongruous amid all the new performers, and me getting a Jo Ramos vibe when I saw Shiela E. again after all these years, performing with Mark Anthony. It was a nice gesture for JLo to take a supporting role to her less-than-stellar husband. Very nice of her. I’m also glad they did away with all those awards for the “loser” auditionees, limiting it to one skit. Haven’t they suffered enough? And haven’t WE suffered enough sitting through weeks of that? But the highlight for me was seeing Tim McGraw sing one of my all-time favorite country songs EVER, “Live Like You Were Dying”. I swear, I get teary-eyed every time I hear that song.

I must concede that I’m nowhere nearly as excited to watch the finale as I use to be. My Idol fever peaked during Seasons 3 and 4 when Fantasia and Carrie won. After those two, I haven’t been as emotionally invested in any contestant, although I did root for Melinda Doolittle, Adam Lambert and David Archuleta. But back to this year, many entertainment writers were calling this year’s finale as the most boring ever, if not the most boring season ever. I beg to disagree. I think last year was the worst year ever, when the line-up was riddled with moody singer-songwriters who were allergic to any show of emotion. There was just somber brooding and moody sulking all season long. Plus, I’m not a fan of seasons 5 and 6 either, which Taylor Hicks and Jordin Sparks won respectively. Maybe because it was the country year, that’s why people are a bit cold to it, but we forget that in the U.S., country is a major driving force in the music industry. Country stars sell some of the most records in the industry. So I’m happy Scotty won. Lauren has a rocking voice, but she seems too much of a kid to me, like a little girl playing dress up, made to perform for a high school variety show. Plus the big hair and the poofy skirts just don’t do it for me.

Scotty will sell lots of records because he’s the all-American boy-next-door country star. He loves country music and baseball; how much more American can one guy be? Plus he’s the only Idol winner who spent his time singing his coronation song hugging everyone, from his family to all the other finalists, instead of basking in his time of glory. And when he won the coin toss to decide who goes first, he won it, but he deferred to Lauren, who opted to go last, the better option. He’s a cowboy who would do John Wayne proud. But in the end, it’s about who sells records and who lasts in the industry. Very few become household names like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert; the list isn’t long. Some shone brightly for a year or two then disappeared. Most, were simply never heard from again, post-Idol. I hope Scotty makes it, at least even only in Nashville, I really think he’s got what it takes. He should come up with good material, at least better than that awful first single of his, “I Love You This Big”. If his writers can conjure a “Jesus Take The Wheel”-type of story-song for him, Scotty just might live up to his Idol pedigree.

To wrap up “The Ring” experience, after falling into the raging rapids and knocked off my feet by huge waves, I finally decided to return the ring I found in the ocean to the front desk of the hotel. It was weird, I had no interest in the ring, yet, it was so difficult to part with it (I know, very Frodo). So for whatever reason that the owner of the ring ever gets to this blog, get your ring from the lost & found at the Grand Hyatt Bali in Nusa Dua. And to those of you who’ve been writing comments [check out the post “Bali, Indonesia (Day 1)“] about how those cloudy white thingies on the photo of the ring spell out the word “DIED”, you are FREAKING ME OUT!!! So quit it! Honestly, I don’t see it, but since you told me about it, it now does seem to spell out that word. Is it the owner of the ring telling me of his fate? Did he die of drowning? Was he trying to take me with him when I was wearing the ring? I don’t want to know! Anyway, after Bali, our next stop was Kuala Terengganu in Malaysia. We had to fly to Kuala Lumpur first, then fly from KL to KT. On our flight from Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur onboard an Air Asia flight, I experience my single most petrifying experience on a plane.

As you can see in this photo, the skies were very cloudy and even the ground was covered with a King Kong-ish blanket of mist or fog. The flight was going relatively uneventful, when suddenly, without warning, the plane started shaking violently, and then shot straight up for a few seconds, then went the complete opposite way and nosedived for just as long (but it felt like we were plummeting to our fiery deaths for HOURS). I’ve been riding planes since I was a kid back in the 80’s. I wouldn’t even know how many flights I’ve taken, many trans-oceanic flights. I’ve experienced bad turbulence, including the plane suddenly dropping a couple of hundred feet. No matter how scary, no matter how much the drop, you could still feel the plane on a horizontal position. This time, you could really feel as if the plane was tipped forward, nose first in a steep dive. Even after the plane steadied, many were still in tears, some sobbing hysterically at the close call. Seriously, I thought that was it. Strangely though, the one thing that flashed in my head, more than my actual impeding doom, was: “Shet, lalabas ‘to sa Air Crash Investigation, di ko mapapanood!”

Obviously we got to land safely, shaken, but alive. I reluctantly boarded the second flight and we finally got to the sleepy city of Kuala Terengganu. When we got to our resort, Tanjong Jara, we were blown away. The place was incredible. It wasn’t busy like the Hyatt in Bali; this was the quiet, island-paradise type of resort. The design is very old, it reminded me of the sets in the movie “Out of Africa”.

Apparently, it was originally a resthouse for some Malaysian royal family, so it was constructed in the style of the old Malaysian palaces. The rooms were unbelievably luxurious.

If I didn’t feel like I was wasting my money sleeping a holiday away, I could stay in that room for days! And of course there were the pools. They had two, one near the lobby and which also has the bar:

And the bigger infinity pools by the beach:

But we didn’t go to Malaysia just to swim in some pools (no matter how spectacular they look), we went there for the beach. The beach at Tanjong Jara is quite unique. When the sun isn’t out, it looks like any other beach:

Very nice expansive white sand beach. But what’s odd is, once the sun comes out and hits the sand, the whole beach turns a bright hue of gold!

It’s beautiful to behold! The waves have a way of transforming as well. During low tide, the waters are calm. But once the tide comes in, the waves crash into the shore with a lot of fury, much like in Bali:

As you can probably guess in this photo, yes, I swallowed a lot of sea water that day. I would’ve spit, but many times the waves caught me by surprise. But when we were out of the water, we just loved lounging around in one of the many day beds around the shore, where we watch the sun set.

Believe it or not, I took that photo at almost 8 in the evening. It was so weird, it didn’t get dark until way after 8pm. And in the morning, it would be 7am and the skies would still be dark. It was explained to me why it was so, something about how the time zones aren’t in a straight line from north to south (or something like that), which accounts for the discrepancy in lightness and darkness, but I didn’t really get it. All I knew was, the sunsets were things of beauty. Sunset after sunset, I’d have emoments (emo moments), I guess such mood lighting gets me in THAT mood. Lovely.

Again, I make an exception and divert from my chronological style in posting the Top Tens. So from 2009 we jump to yesterday’s topic, then jump right back to 2009 after. The only reason is because I was mortified earlier. I was joking around with Squats (Vinz of RX) via text, and we were trying to one-up each other with bastos entries of our on. UNFORTUNATELY for me, I was also texting my very serious vet because I needed to bring Siam, who’s quite ill. So going back and forth from one person to another, plus going on board was a recipe for disaster. I ended up texting my vet this message: “Fire exit ka ba? Kasi ang sarap mong labasan eh.” OMG. When I realized I missent it,I almost died of a heart attack. So anyway, I thought it would be fitting to post this in advance.

May 19, 2011 → The Top Ten Ways To Complete The Statement: “___ Ka Ba? Kasi ___” – Sent in by Nyupigurl

Grace Gatdula – “Bagyo ka ba? Kasi the moment you left my area of responsibility, you left my heart in a state of calamity.”

We again knew that day 4 was going to be another busy day. We took another tour, and we squeezed in as much as we could in 8 hours time. First stop was the Barong and Kris show. It basically showcases a story from the Mahabharata revolving around Rangda, a Balinese king from the tenth century. It’s beautiful to watch from both a visual and auditory point of view, even if most of the time you don’t understand what’s happening on stage. It’s a feast for the eyes and ears.

It’s got gods and demons and kings and the whole shebang, but the scene that stole the limelight was a BIZARRE portion involving, hang on to your seats, A MIDGET STRADDLING A DEAD EVISCERATED WILD BOAR SPORTING A RAGING ERECTION. The most fun you’ll ever have in a cultural show:

The finale of the show involves a group of men who go into a trance and plunge their sharp keris (a wavy sword) into their bare chests. They really plunge it hard and they twist it around like madmen. You’d wince a bit if you’re squeamish, but they are supposedly protected by a spell which leaves them unscathed after the dance. One man will go into the trance deeper than the others, and he will practically pass out, to be revived by the priest/shaman. It’s quite intense to watch.

After that, our main activity for this day was a visit to the Bali Safari and Marine Park. When I was a kid and our dad would take us on trips around the world, I always made time to go to the zoos, which included some of the best in the world: Berlin Zoo, San Diego Zoo, etc. So I made sure to visit this zoo/theme park.

It’s a pretty large place where you can walk around and check out the animals, but the highlight of the place is the actual safari, where you ride a bus and it takes you around to visit the animals in the “wild”. Turns out there’s a better deal, where you take an all terrain vehicle and you get to feed the animals, but it’s more expensive. It was a nifty experience, although it’s a fake safari, but good enough for city slickers.

We also had some close encounters with some of the animals. Here’s my long-lost son from an affair I had years back:

Then there was majestic albino tiger. I literally gasped when I saw it up close, because it was stunningly beautiful and exuded strength and nobility. Of course albinos never survive long in the wild because they’d stick out like a free meal for predators. This tiger wouldn’t have reached adulthood and would’ve been eaten as a cub by predators since they’ve lost their natural camouflage.

After that, we then proceeded to Uluwatu, by a cliff, for a sunset Kecak dance. I’ll try to upload a video of a portion of it, because you need to see and hear it to appreciate how incredible it is. The show lasts for an hour, telling the story of the Ramayana this time, with male performers chanting all throughout. Rumor has it that James Cameron took this as inspiration for the scene in Avatar where they were trying to revive the Sigourney Weaver character. What’s incredible about this show is that it transpires during sunset, so as the dances progress, the skies are getting darker, and it culminates in the climactic fire dance when the night is full blast. Exhilarating!

After that, we enjoyed a nice seafood dinner by a beach in Jimbaran then went home for our last night at the resort.

p.s.

I forgot to post pictures of one beach we went to during day 3, so I’ll include it here as a postscript. We also went to an iconic beach in Bali called Padang-Padang, a small beach near the roadside, famous for being one of the places where the movie “Eat Pray Love” was filmed in. It’s a surfer’s beach so you see a lot of them in droves. It’s also a public beach, so you see as much locals as you see tourists. It’s got a hippie vibe to it. Here’s a view from street level; you need to go down a steep flight of stairs to go down to the actual beach: